Death as a Fateful Moment? The Reflexive Individual and Scottish Funeral Practices



4.5 Burial is the only method of disposal available on the island, although the funeral director arranges for
approximately eight to twelve bodies a year to be taken to the mainland for cremation. This involves a two
and three quarter hour ferry trip, followed by a 60 mile road journey to the nearest crematorium in
Inverness. If family from the island attend the crematorium then they also, of course, face the return
journey.

4.6 This brief word portrait is intended to give a view of funerals which, while changed from those of the
past, still owe much to traditional island practices. Funerals in Stornoway are not personalised to the
deceased individual in ways discussed above, but on occasion a funeral will take place on the Isle of
Lewis which differs radically from the norm and which can be described as personalised. The following
funeral is one such.

The reflexive Lewis funeral

5.1 Lucy and Robert knew that Lucy was going to die almost a year before she did so; the hospital
consultant had given her three to six months to live, but ‘she went seven months beyond the period they
said’ (Robert). Neither of the couple were born on the Isle of Lewis, but they had spent family holidays
there and Lucy ‘fell in love with the place and wanted to come here out of the city. About 15 years ago we
decided we would buy a place and actually live here properly’ Robert said. Lucy was a Christian woman
with a faith in God, but, said Robert, she ‘was a private person when it came to religion...she didn’t go
along with the Free Church system of spreading the gospel here because it’s very indoctrinated’. While she
was dying, Lucy told her husband that she did not want to be buried in a Free Church cemetery using local
burial customs, but that she would prefer to be cremated. After Lucy’s death Robert discussed her wishes
with his adult daughter, who supported him in the decision to explore the possibility of a cremation.

5.2 Once Lucy had died the funeral director made all the arrangements. He prepared her body and placed
her in the coffin which he then took to the ferry. On the mainland one of the Inverness funeral directors
collected Lucy from the ferry and took her to the crematorium where ‘there was a little service...we didn’t
actually attend.it was a lot of expense and we had things to do here anyway’ Robert said. Some of Lucy’s
friends from the mainland did attend and the service was taken by a hospital chaplain she had met whilst
she had been in hospital in Inverness. Robert continued, ‘and then she came back a few days later, and
the ashes were delivered here you know and.we’d arranged the service which in fact took place a
fortnight later’. The funeral ceremony was planned between Robert and his daughter and it was held in the
family’s garden where ‘we mentioned Lucy, we mentioned what she’d done, the sort of life she lived, how
she passed on...we sprinkled the ashes on the rockery,’ Robert said. There was no recorded music, but
Robert said that ‘a Church of Scotland man (who) visited Lucy when she was ill at home here and in
hospital...sang a couple of hymns and he’s a lovely voice’.

5.3 Robert himself gave a eulogy to Lucy, which he described as a celebration of her life. He spoke about
their ‘long road’ together in marriage and how ‘from time to time we hit the odd pothole’, but his main focus
was on the character and personality of his wife and, in particular, the courage with which she faced her
last months, knowing that she was dying.

5.4 Despite the unusual nature of the funeral ceremony many locals came to pay their respects to a
popular woman, and ‘most people thought that was quite strange...but at the end of the day I think they
valued our views and respected it’ said Robert. At the end of the service everyone went into the house
where they had ‘cups of tea and coffee and sandwiches, that sort of thing, and drifted away at their own
pace. But there were nearly a hundred people here, which considering we were incomers was a good
recommendation of Lucy’s popularity’.

5.5 Robert and Lucy had moved to the Isle of Lewis 15 years before her death. They were thus living far
away from their relatives, so that ‘very few of the family members made it up here (for the funeral) because
of the distance and the cost’ Robert said. They had both integrated into life on the island to such an extent
that Lucy’s funeral was well attended, but they lacked an emotional link with the island’s traditions, so that
Lucy saw local funeral practices from the perspective of someone who was used to a less impersonal style
of funeral. Robert said that for himself he would be happy for a traditional Lewis funeral: ‘the local system
doesn't bother me and I’ll be quite happy to follow it myself’.

5.6 While it is easy to conclude that Lucy’s garden funeral was personalised to her (Emke 2002; Garces-
Foley & Holcomb 2006; Schafer 2007), it may also be helpful to consider whether the concept of the
reflexive individual can help clarify the processes by which this funeral came about. As non-natives living
on the island it was perhaps inevitable that Lucy and Robert should engage in a process of reflexivity. The
Lewis way of conducting funerals was alien to them and they, especially Robert after Lucy had died, had to
make a choice. One advantage of using traditional practices, that one does not need to make decisions at
a time when one is grieving, was not available to Lucy and Robert. Robert and Lucy discussed her funeral
arrangements, although she left the final decisions to him. After she died Robert, after consulting his
daughter, decided to honour his wife’s wishes and send her body for cremation, despite the extra expense
involved and the possibility of offending the people amongst whom he has continued to live as a widower.

5.7 In order to do this he made use of the expert systems available to him and for which he had sufficient
financial resources to pay. After Lucy died, Robert spoke to the funeral director about the family’s options,
‘we got hold of the funeral director and asked him, you know, what the procedure was’. The local funeral
director co-ordinated the process, and the expert systems needed to carry out the cremation were two
firms of funeral directors, a ferry company, the crematorium and its staff and a mainland hospital chaplain
who delivered a service when the cremation took place. Lucy’s ashes were returned to the island using the
postal system.

http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/3/22.html

31/08/2011




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